Happy New Year everyone! We will be having an adoption event this Saturday January 27th, from 1-4 at the Weber’s Pet Supermarket in Chantilly, VA. We hope you will come out and see some of our available dogs to make them your forever friend in 2019.

Weber’s Pet Supermarket - Chantilly14508-G Lee RoadChantilly VA 20151703-631-2738Following is a list of dogs that will be attending: Daisy. (This list is updated often so do check back.)

Don’t see a dog you are interested in meeting? Please e-mail info@aforeverhome.org and we can put you on touch with the foster parent.

Deck your walls in 2019 with this adorable calendar of A Forever Home rescue dogs. The calendar also makes a great gift – perfect for a gift exchange – and all proceeds benefit A Forever Home Rescue Foundation and help further our mission to rescue dogs in the Northern Virginia area.

All of the dogs featured in our calendar have been adopted through our organization. Our monthly stars are photos voted on by our supporters and our cover features photos of our adopted dogs sent in by our volunteers and adopters. We also would like to thank the incredible sponsors listed below who helped make this calendar happen.

A Forever Home was invited to bring some of our doggies out to meet our benefactors at the Lincoln Property Management fundraiser. We are the lucky recipients of needed supplies and nearly $1000 in cash donations. Thanks to their support, we are able to provide needed medical care for some of the dogs and pups rescued this year.

Our event at Dogma Bakery https://dogmabakery.com, with photos by Jeanne Taylor http://jtpetpics.com, was a great hit! We received a donation of $450 thanks to all the wonderful people and doggies that came out to sit on Santa’s lap:

New babies (1st Christmas) – 2

Kids – 10

Dogs – 110

Grown-ups – 31

We are grateful to Jeanne Taylor for her awesome photography, Dogma for their dedication to the dogs, Santa for being such a trooper, and AFH volunteers Vanessa, Jordan, and Kenna for helping out.

Audrey celebrated her 11th birthday with Hope’s pups. As you can see, the pups had as good of a time as the kids. Hope’s pups had a great time romping and playing with the pull toys the party goers made for them. They ran under tables, chased each other, played with the girls, and gave lots of kisses. In addition, Audrey and her friends donated $210 for our pups and we are very grateful. Happy Birthday Audrey and thank you for inviting us to come out and celebrate with you!

Trixie’s Story

Super sweet, super wiggly Trixie is one lucky little girl. Her previous family moved away and left her chained to a tree, ready to have her puppies any minute. When the neighbors noticed that she’d been out there for a few days with nobody coming to feed or water her and that the weather was starting to turn cold, they cut her chain and took her to the local shelter. The shelter she was taken to has an extremely high kill rate, and poor Trixie was next in line for euthanasia if someone didn’t speak for her immediately. Luckily, AFH caught wind of little Trixie’s plight, and immediately took her into foster.

Only a few days after being placed with her foster family, on Veteran’s Day, Trixie went into labor. She delivered six beautiful, healthy puppies, with the help and support of her foster parents. Now, Trixie gets to spend her days in a warm, safe foster home with plenty of people who love and dote on her while she takes excellent care of her little family. Her human foster sisters even read her a story every night before bedtime!

Trixie’s puppies will start looking for their forever homes in about six weeks, and Trixie will start looking for hers a few weeks after that when she’s able to be spayed. In the meantime, they’ll all enjoy plenty of cuddles and cookies, and get to stay out of the cold.

Learn how you can help AFH raise funds to purchase new transport vans to replace the aging ones we’re currently using. Visit our #GivingTuesday page and take action today!

Julie and her Puppies

Julie & her puppies

Julie is a pretty little Beagle girl who had the bad luck of being very pregnant and being taken to a very rural, very full shelter, as part of a hoarding case. Because the shelter was already beyond capacity, Julie, along with her former housemates, were facing immediate euthanasia, but her luck was about to change.

AFH stepped in and took Julie into foster care just in the nick of time. She was only with her foster family for a few days before she delivered a beautiful, all-girl litter of five healthy puppies, right on her foster mom’s lap! Now, mommy and babies are all safe and loved, and getting bigger and stronger by the minute. In about six weeks, Julie and her babies can start looking for their forever homes.

AFH saves hundreds of momma dogs and their babies, just like Julie and her little girls, from being killed in shelters, and gives them the chance to find loving, forever homes with fabulous adopters. Every donation goes directly toward our efforts to continue this important work, and to saving little lives every day.

Learn how you can help AFH raise funds to purchase new transport vans to replace the aging ones we’re currently using. Visit our #GivingTuesday page and take action today!

Riley’s Story: Talk about lemons!

Poor Riley has been through more in her two short years than most dogs experience in a lifetime. She came from an extremely rural area in Virginia, and her people had neither the time nor the money to properly care for her. Her original family didn’t pay her much attention and kept her on a concrete slab porch, which is where she delivered her fifteen puppies. A local rescue group managed to convince her people to surrender her so she could come to A Forever Home, but disaster struck the day before she was scheduled to be moved.

Riley, ten days after delivering her puppies, was hit by a car and dragged down the street. The top of her head was scraped, one of one of her femoral heads was shorn off, and the inside of her other back leg had such extensive trauma that she was completely unable to walk. The rescue group that had convinced Riley’s people to give her up called A Forever Home to cover the cost of emergency veterinary treatment and whisked her and her puppies off to the vet. As soon as the vet wrapped her leg to keep everything together, Riley was brought to AFH’s vet, Dr. Martin Tohill, at Chantilly Animal Hospital. Once he removed Riley’s bandages, he realized the damage caused by being dragged on the road was much more extensive than originally thought, and that a specialist surgeon would need to be brought in if there was any hope of saving her leg. Dr. Tohill closed up the gaping wound on her leg and scheduled the surgeon to come. Because both of Riley’s legs were injured, her mobility was very limited. The surgeon decided to install an external fixator to stabilize the leg that was more damaged and to give her more ability to walk.

While Riley was having her surgeries, AFH fosters Debbie and Jeff bottle fed her babies and kept them warm, while everyone hoped and prayed that Riley would come out of surgery with all four of her legs.

Thankfully, that first surgery repaired enough of the damage for Riley to keep her leg, though it wasn’t repaired enough to give her back her full mobility. Debbie and Jeff would have to use slings to lift and move Riley for everything from changing her bedding, to taking her outside to use the bathroom. Even with the pain her injuries caused, and having to be physically moved by people she didn’t know, Riley was incredibly sweet and an exceptional mother to her babies through everything.

Riley eventually underwent a third surgery to remove the fixator and allow her to move her now-healed leg on her own. Now that one of Riley’s two damaged legs is healed, she’s getting ready to undergo her fourth and final surgery to remove the femoral head that was shorn off in the accident, and to spay her.

What’s even better than Riley getting ready to be done with surgeries and pain, is that she’s got a fantastic adopter waiting to take her home as soon as she’s all better! Riley truly is a miracle dog, and her vets and fosters are nothing short of miracle workers.

AFH and our dedicated volunteers give dogs like Riley, who would’ve died in the middle of the road, in the middle of nowhere, leaving fifteen tiny puppies behind to starve on a concrete slab, a shot at life. Your donation ensures that we can continue to do this work and to save lives for another day – and turn more lemons into lemonade!

Learn how you can help AFH raise funds to purchase new transport vans to replace the aging ones we’re currently using. Visit our #GivingTuesday page and take action today!

Mia’s Story: One pink cast, $800. A Forever Home, priceless!

Mia came to A Forever Home Rescue with her four siblings. These poor puppies’ owner was a preacher, who lacked the funds to care for them. He agreed to give the puppies to A Forever Home so that they could find good homes. AFH also spayed the mother dog, in order to prevent more unwanted litters. Once Mia was with the rescue, it was discovered that she had broken her little toes and that her pad was infected. The vet felt that she had most likely been stepped on.

Mia was outfitted with a beautiful pink cast and in a few short weeks, with the careful and loving care of her foster mom Jessica, she was healed. Mia is now growing up, big and strong, and surrounded by the love of her forever family. Her rough beginning in life is now just a distant memory.

Learn how you can help AFH raise funds to purchase new transport vans to replace the aging ones we’re currently using. Visit our #GivingTuesday page and take action today!